The “quintessentially American” Tom Cruise movie David Cronenberg rejected
When it comes to master filmmakers with a genuinely unique perspective on the profession of directing, look no further than the inimitable David Cronenberg. Throughout his phenomenal career behind the camera, Cronenberg has woven chilling narratives that dive headfirst into the married genres of science fiction and horror.
With quality movies such as The Fly, Videodrome, Crash and A History of Violence, Cronenberg has proven his eye for telling tales of the deeper and darker sides of the human consciousness whilst always delivering a keen perception of society’s ever-worsening ills, creating a reputation as the master of body horror.
But like any director, there have been several instances where Cronenberg has rejected the offers to take certain films on, the likes of which seem to stick out more than those he’s taken on. Remarkably, Cronenberg had been offered the chance to direct the iconic action film Top Gun starring Tom Cruise but opted to turn it down.
“Top Gun was a possibility many years ago, and I really felt I couldn’t connect with that movie,” Cronenberg once said on the Meet the Filmmaker podcast. “I certainly could when I watched it, but the tone of it was not something I was in sympathy with and also, and this might strike you as strange, but it’s true, that movie is quintessentially American, and I am not an American, and there’s a real difference.”
He continued: “I’m Canadian, we’re connected, we’re cousins, and we understand each other up to a certain point, but beyond that, we’re really quite different culturally. I actually have often had scripts sent to me where I said, ‘I actually cannot do this because I don’t understand it well enough, and I feel that the reason for that is because I’m not American.”
Top Gun arrived in 1986 with Tony Scott on directing duty and Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr both writing the screenplay. Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a young naval pilot who, along with his radar intercept officer, Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw, is given the chance to train at the US Navy’s top military school.
The film was not the only one of high note that Cronenberg opted to reject, though, as he also had the opportunity to direct RoboCop, eventually handled by Paul Verhoeven. Cronenberg once explained, “I could see that it could be an interesting movie, but it was too familiar to me. Its satire of corporate American was a little too obvious to me.”
